Muskie

This part of Minnesota is not known much for muskie except for West Battle Lake. Take a look below to learn more about this lake.

West Battle Lake (Otter Tail County, MN)

West Battle Lake is a 5,624 acre mesotrophic (moderately fertile) lake located in south central Otter Tail County. The city of Battle Lake, Minnesota abuts the west shoreline. The maximum depth is 108 feet and 44% of the lake is 15 feet deep or less. This lake is a popular lake for fishing and boating. The fishing is good for walleye, northern pike, muskie, largemouth bass, bluegill and crappie. Rock bass and perch are also available in the lake.

Using Leaders for Muskie

Muskie have some serious teeth. Use quality steel leaders to avoid bite-offs. If you are fishing clear water, you may need to go with a fluorocarbon leader to get bit. Most anglers will not go any lighter than 100 lb. fluorocarbon for muskie and don’t be shocked if you lose a big fish due to a bite-off. Some anglers go as heavy as 140 to 150 pound fluorocarbon. Ideally, you want to be as stealthy as you can so you can get more bites, but if you go too light with the fluorocarbon, you risk losing fish and possibly killing some big fish due to the lures getting stuck in their mouths.

Best Baits for Muskie

There are many types of baits to target muskie. Anglers don’t have as many options when using live baits since many of the fish that muskie eat can not be used as bait. Suckers and big chubs are usually the best options for most anglers that want to use live bait. For artificial lures, there are a variety of big baits to throw. Most anglers fish with bucktail spinners, some type of swimbait, topwater lure or jerkbait when chasing muskie.

There aren’t too many different rigs for muskie fishing because you only have so many options for throwing some of the gigantic baits needed. Also, most anglers use lures for muskie or big sucker minnows, so you really don’t need too many rigs to target muskie. However, there are still several rigs you should know about, especially if you are going to be using live bait.

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